ex brickie
pfm Member
Is Abbey Road the brand?
Elsdon Wonfor Audio LS-40 speaker cables
- Thread starter Cereal Killer
- Start date
ex brickie
pfm Member
Stupid me - it is Studio Connections.... sorry
Do you have their mains cables or interconnects? You'll need some decent jumpers at some point. If you decide you want the LS40s I have a spare pair of LS25 jumpers (miles better than brass links!)
Do you have their mains cables or interconnects? You'll need some decent jumpers at some point. If you decide you want the LS40s I have a spare pair of LS25 jumpers (miles better than brass links!)
Heckyman
pfm Member
Yes, I have their "Black star" I/Cs and mains.
My cables used to be a 3.5m pair (used with PMC 25.23). I then moved my system and also got speakers with bi-wired terminals, so I simply cut my cables in half. The double runs were a bit clearer.
A nice free upgrade at the time, but a bit of a headache in the context of contemplating more expensive speaker cables...
ex brickie
pfm Member
No need to bi-wire - upgrade the jumpers!
steveinspain
pfm Member
Don't forget that my LS-40's are up for sale in the classifieds.....
Heckyman
pfm Member
Cables arrived, had a late lunch break to allow for a quick first impression. My teenage son, on first entry to the room, summed it up: "oooooh".
We enjoyed the awesome bass playing on "Monk's Dream" by Haden, Bley and Motian, some deep techno by Denis Horvat and finally "Riders on the Storm". Must get back to work!
We enjoyed the awesome bass playing on "Monk's Dream" by Haden, Bley and Motian, some deep techno by Denis Horvat and finally "Riders on the Storm". Must get back to work!
Heckyman
pfm Member
...looks like @Amber Audio is next, could you PM me your address please?
The initial "WOW" has worn off, my ears having adjusted to the "new normal". That said, everything sounds great and I'm not hearing any new "niggles" at all.
I look for transparency and neutrality in cables rather than any sugar coating of flaws elsewhere. It's never easy to define neutral, but these cables do seem to be delivering on that score. A+!
The initial "WOW" has worn off, my ears having adjusted to the "new normal". That said, everything sounds great and I'm not hearing any new "niggles" at all.
I look for transparency and neutrality in cables rather than any sugar coating of flaws elsewhere. It's never easy to define neutral, but these cables do seem to be delivering on that score. A+!
Heckyman
pfm Member
...the EWA cables continue to make their case as a "vital system component"...
I don't feel equipped to attempt a "cable review" so I'll just outline my thoughts on these cables in relation to my hifi journey. Apologies as this is rather long. I hope it will be interesting to at least some.
In the past couple of years I've been trying to put together a "good" system after years of budget-fi.
Having bought decent speakers and amp, it all sounded pretty good, but I always got the feeling it should have been better given what I'd spent (not much by hi-fi standards, a crazy amount by normal standards).
I felt I was missing some clarity, body and a sense of ease. Believing my speakers and amp to be good enough, I ended up going down the digital front end rabbit hole. You know, expensive DACs and other kinds of products that are often sneered at on this very forum by the bits are bits crowd.
I was all set to spend a whole lot more on a streamer/DAC, which may or may not have done the trick. But a deal fell through and instead I ended up DAC less. Then I got a new Mac mini M1. Listening to this on my £100 AKG headphones, I thought it sounded about as good as my previous main system. So I began using the headphone jack as a source (with good RCAs and adaptor).
Thinking I must be kidding myself, "you can't use a computer straight to an amp, it has a nasty SMPS inside etc etc", I decided to try a Chord Qutest DAC as that's widely acknowledged to be pretty good. First impressions were that it was very similar to the Mac mini. Applying various tweaks I had at the ready, I thought I had maybe managed to improve the DAC above the Mac headphone socket.
In the middle of this, my turn came up on the EWA cable tour. I hadn't been paying that much attention, I had just put my name down out of curiosity.
So...I've already posted first impressions on the LS40. Straight away more clarity and more body to the sound, just what I was looking for in fact. Listening normally over the next couple of days, I've not heard any niggles.
What struck me this afternoon listening to 6 Music, was that I could now hear differences in the actual recordings much more clearly. Liz Kershaw was playing mainly CDs from 1981, some of these were a bit edgy and congested. Giles Peterson was playing vinyl full of pops and crackles, and it sounded lovely, like vinyl in fact. I then decided to compare the 2020 remaster of Blue Monday with the 1987 version (Qobuz), and the 2020 was more like the vinyl sound but even better and without pops. I then concluded that all this was reaching the point of enough detail for my personal needs. The worse recordings didn't sound bad or anything, it's just that I could imagine that chasing ever more detail might become a bit of a distraction.
What's even funnier is that for this particular session I'd unplugged the DAC and reverted to the Mac mini headphone socket. I'd expected the better speaker cables to show up the Mac's internal DAC, but this was not the case. I honestly still can't be sure which I prefer. Perhaps I will end up trading the DAC for speaker cables! Crazy.
So this is the conclusion, you can never be sure what will work unless you've tried it for yourself, in your own system, over a decent period of time, compared to alternatives.
What's very clear in my system is that the EWA cables have had an unexpectedly large impact and looks like they will take me just where I was hoping to go.
Thanks again Colin and Alan and everyone else here for drawing attention to these cables which otherwise I might have overlooked.
I don't feel equipped to attempt a "cable review" so I'll just outline my thoughts on these cables in relation to my hifi journey. Apologies as this is rather long. I hope it will be interesting to at least some.
In the past couple of years I've been trying to put together a "good" system after years of budget-fi.
Having bought decent speakers and amp, it all sounded pretty good, but I always got the feeling it should have been better given what I'd spent (not much by hi-fi standards, a crazy amount by normal standards).
I felt I was missing some clarity, body and a sense of ease. Believing my speakers and amp to be good enough, I ended up going down the digital front end rabbit hole. You know, expensive DACs and other kinds of products that are often sneered at on this very forum by the bits are bits crowd.
I was all set to spend a whole lot more on a streamer/DAC, which may or may not have done the trick. But a deal fell through and instead I ended up DAC less. Then I got a new Mac mini M1. Listening to this on my £100 AKG headphones, I thought it sounded about as good as my previous main system. So I began using the headphone jack as a source (with good RCAs and adaptor).
Thinking I must be kidding myself, "you can't use a computer straight to an amp, it has a nasty SMPS inside etc etc", I decided to try a Chord Qutest DAC as that's widely acknowledged to be pretty good. First impressions were that it was very similar to the Mac mini. Applying various tweaks I had at the ready, I thought I had maybe managed to improve the DAC above the Mac headphone socket.
In the middle of this, my turn came up on the EWA cable tour. I hadn't been paying that much attention, I had just put my name down out of curiosity.
So...I've already posted first impressions on the LS40. Straight away more clarity and more body to the sound, just what I was looking for in fact. Listening normally over the next couple of days, I've not heard any niggles.
What struck me this afternoon listening to 6 Music, was that I could now hear differences in the actual recordings much more clearly. Liz Kershaw was playing mainly CDs from 1981, some of these were a bit edgy and congested. Giles Peterson was playing vinyl full of pops and crackles, and it sounded lovely, like vinyl in fact. I then decided to compare the 2020 remaster of Blue Monday with the 1987 version (Qobuz), and the 2020 was more like the vinyl sound but even better and without pops. I then concluded that all this was reaching the point of enough detail for my personal needs. The worse recordings didn't sound bad or anything, it's just that I could imagine that chasing ever more detail might become a bit of a distraction.
What's even funnier is that for this particular session I'd unplugged the DAC and reverted to the Mac mini headphone socket. I'd expected the better speaker cables to show up the Mac's internal DAC, but this was not the case. I honestly still can't be sure which I prefer. Perhaps I will end up trading the DAC for speaker cables! Crazy.
So this is the conclusion, you can never be sure what will work unless you've tried it for yourself, in your own system, over a decent period of time, compared to alternatives.
What's very clear in my system is that the EWA cables have had an unexpectedly large impact and looks like they will take me just where I was hoping to go.
Thanks again Colin and Alan and everyone else here for drawing attention to these cables which otherwise I might have overlooked.
Heckyman
pfm Member
Cables on their way up to @Amber Audio , enjoy!
ABCaudio
Trade: ABCaudio, representing EWA
Absolutely!
ABCaudio
Trade: ABCaudio, representing EWA
Updated list, we are approaching the tail end now (sorry Muttley)... Any further participants are welcome.
@Amber Audio
@Cereal Killer
@Yivez
@Dan K
@Muttley2
@Chris Tarling
@Vaibhav
@Amber Audio
@Cereal Killer
@Yivez
@Dan K
@Muttley2
@Chris Tarling
@Vaibhav
Last edited:
Amber Audio
This is the Day
Cables arrived. @Cereal Killer please PM address and I’ll get a delivery organised.
Dan - the loan cables in this thread have bananas both ends.
Dan - the loan cables in this thread have bananas both ends.
ex brickie
pfm Member
Hey @Cereal Killer are you having a second bite at the cables?
Cereal Killer
432
Yes... well, the system keeps changing, now Its an Aavik U-300
ex brickie
pfm Member
@Cereal Killer I noticed your fetish for big amps! You lucky boy! Well that amplifier deserves an EWA treat doesn't it?
You're not tempted by floorstanders now you know what a meaty bass you can get?
You're not tempted by floorstanders now you know what a meaty bass you can get?